“This is what has gotten me here, shooting the basketball and just trying to get everybody else involved.” ALLAN HOUSTON

So far it’s been big talk, no action for the New Jersey Nets. the team’s main man, Jayson Williams, predicted before the season the Nets would win 35 games. They went into last night’s Battle of the Hudson against the Knicks at 2-7. Williams said last night he was out of the predicting business for awhile. Jayson Williams says theNets can’t say anything about how good they are until they are at least an average team.

“We’ve got to get to .500 before we say anything. I’m tired of making excuses but I want to see how good we are.”

Jeff Van Gundy thinks the Nets are much better than their record.

“Whenever you come out and say you are going to win 35 games, as a player, I don’t think that gives due respect to how difficult the East is or how hard it is to play .700 basketball,” said Van Gundy, who has successfully muzzled his players this year. “I don’t know if you need to put that burden on yourself, but they are an outstanding team.

“They have excellent talent,” Van Gundy added. “The personnel things they’ve done over there the last two years has been something. Their schedule will even out.

“Eight of their nine games have been against plus .500 teams. They are going to have their chance to get on a run, I just hope it doesn’t start tonight. They are going to be one of the top X-amount of teams in the East when all is said and done. They have no worries about making the playoffs, they’re too talented.”

Ironically, Van Gundy said it will be a battle for his team to make the playoffs.

“Every time we’ve played the Nets, they’ve been hard, close games,” Van Gundy said.

The Knicks went into last night’s game 6-3, having won six of their last seven and riding a hot Allan Houston. A TV talking head stuck a microphone in Houston’s face the other night when the camera zoomed in and TV-Man declared, “You’re in a pretty good zone right now.”

Houston gave a blank stare and offered the only words he could think of, “Thank you.”

For once, early in a season, Houston can let his game do the talking for him.

Houston was coming off back-to-back season highs, scoring 25 and 26 points. He’s also sixth in the NBA at three-point shooting at 50 percent.

Chris Childs is at .571 (8-14) and is second. Cliff Robinson .636 (7-11) leads the league. Third is Milwaukee’s Dell Curry .545 (18-33).

Walt Williams in Portland (15-28) is at .536 and Phoenix’ George McCloud is fifth at .515 (17-33), Detroit’s Jud Buechler is tied with Houston having made 12 of his 24 three-pointers.

Houston has buried nine of his last 10 three-pointers over the last two games and is 13-for-17 over the last four. He also has six steals in the last two games and has hit his last 12 free throw attempts.

In the Knicks’ last four wins, he has averaged 22.5 points on .508 shooting (33-65), including 12 of 17 (.706) from three-point range in the last four wins.

“Sometimes, you’re going to have good days and some days are not going to be so good,” Houston said of his hot shooting. “You have to continue to work and be consistent. And hopefully, this [run] will last a long time.

“This is what has gotten me here, shooting the basketball and just trying to get everybody else involved and playing your role and letting the scoring and shooting take care of itself throughout the game.”

Houston isn’t the only hot-shooting Knick. Kurt Thomas is leading the league in shooting at .571, (36-63), tied with Othella Harrington (52-of-91) of Houston. Shaq O’Neal is third at .563.

The Knicks are winning with defense, make no mistake about that. They are holding opponents to a league-best 79.3 points per game on .380 shooting. In the Knicks six wins, they are holding opponents to 73.3 points on .345 shooting.